Monday, June 20, 2011

Ride to Work Day

Temperature this morning was 53°F along with a light but steady rainfall. It wasn't looking good for Ride to Work Day at least in Fairbanks, AK. On the ride in, I didn't see another bike until I arrived on campus where several heavily loaded GS's were heading out from campus housing. By the way, this is an excellent place to stay in Fairbanks if you are looking for affordable housing during the summer. It is especially popular with the ADVrider.com inmates on their way to/from Prudhoe Bay on the north slope of Alaska. Seeing so few bikes today is in stark contrast to this past weekend when there were bikes everywhere. Today, I almost have the entire bike parking area to myself. Shawn, a network engineer and co-owner of Adventure Cycleworks, rides the BMW R12GS in the adjacent space. His bike is also there just about every day rain or shine. Last Friday, there were twelve bikes and scooters jammed into this space with another four scattered around the lot. I think I've only driven the truck into work a handful of times since May 8th. The bike is running great though it may be time for a new battery. There have been a couple of times when I was running errands in town that it barely cranked over.

Good to hear the bike is running great, and your getting some riding in. I rode to work and stayed relatively dry. I think, maybe I had a little mist on the shield, not enough to swipe it off. Otherwise dry, and a nice afternoon return. We had maybe a few extra riders on the road.

Dom:I have no idea how old the battery is but it is at least four years old. When I first got the bike it didn't start very well as in "click" "click" "click" when the start button was pressed. A new relay fixed that. Last summer, occasionally it took a bit of cranking to start but after the top end rebuild, it usually starts on the first revolution.

I am planning on getting an Odyssey PC925L. I think that the voltage regulator may need replacement as I think the AGM chemistry needs a higher voltage to charge completely.